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Many see the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse sitting nearly a mile
from shore and think the breakwater must have been built to connect
the light with solid land. Not true. The breakwater was built first to
provide a safe harbor for vessels, and the lighthouse was added later
to keep ships from running into it.
The intertwined history of Rockland's breakwater and lighthouse began
in 1827, when a small lantern was set on the northern side of the
harbor entrance at Jameson Point. Then in 1832, Jeremiah Berry, the
mason that built the first Pemaquid Lighthouse, erected a little wall
across part of the harbor. Lack of funds forced construction of a
bigger and better breakwater to be postponed for several decades.
In 1856, Lieutenant John Newton, Corps of Engineers, presented to the
President of the United Sates the following reasons for a breakwater
to shelter the harbor and waterfront at Rockland. Three hundred ships
were locally owned, and about two hundred more traded with Rockland.
The town's primary resource was the manufacture of lime, made by
quarrying limestone and heating it in kilns to convert it to lime for
use in construction. The limekilns, many located along the waterfront,
occasionally fell victim to storm-driven seas that raced into the
harbor. In financial terms, at risk were over one million barrels of
lime annually worth $800,000 and $200,000 for the 70,000 cords of wood
burned to make the lime—not to mention the value of the ships and
other trade, including fishing. Newton projected that to build 300
yards of breakwater using granite blocks, weighing from ¼ ton to over
2¼ tons each, would cost $156,742 plus 1/7 percent for contingencies.
Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse painted white
Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard
Trade and steamship travel combined to make Rockport's harbor one of
the busiest in Maine. During 1879, keepers at nearby Owls Head Light
counted 21,539 ships during the daytime and estimated another 10,000
sailed by at night. Backed by a citizens' petition and a key Senator's
support, work finally began on the breakwater in 1881. Unfortunately,
this created another problem.
"The breakwater, which the United States engineers are building,
extending 1,600 feet from the shore, was, with the exception of a
small portion of the outer end, entirely submerged at half-tide and
presented a serious obstruction to the navigation of the harbor,"
reported the Lighthouse Board in 1888. "The appropriation for building
this breakwater being exhausted the engineer in charge was unable to
mark the obstacle with a light. The Board, therefore, in view of the
extreme danger to navigation of this submerged work, erected a
temporary wooden beacon on the outer end, from which is shown a
lantern light."
Between 1888 and 1895, as the length of the breakwater was extended
farther, the beacon was moved four times to mark the outer end. The
original beacon was a fixed white lens lantern that hung on an iron
crane set atop a stone beacon. On August 15, 1892, the white lantern
was replaced by two fixed red lanterns, one mounted six feet above the
other. Starting on April 23, 1888, Eba Ring, a part-time laborer, took
responsibility for the lanterns, rowing out to the breakwater to tend
them.
The original plan for a short breakwater changed to two breakwaters,
before ending up as a single, 7/8-mile-long, twenty-foot-wide
breakwater completed on November 24, 1899. Severe storms that winter,
however, showed that the breakwater needed to be taller, and a
four-foot-tall cap, which included a forty-three-foot wide pad on its
end for a lighthouse, was completed in 1901. Both the total cost of
and the amount of stone needed for the breakwater greatly exceeded the
1856 estimates of $156,742 and 94,307 tons of granite. The final
tallies were $880,093 and 768,774 tons.
In 1895, a six-foot square building was erected at the base of the
beacon mast, and Lleweylen Charles Ames began serving as the beacon
attendant, earning $300 per year. After the breakwater was completed,
Ames walked to the light, unless the breakwater was iced over. One of
Ames' duties was striking a metal triangle during foggy weather. Ames
must have had strong arms, because after the lighthouse was built and
a fog trumpet installed, the signal would sound for as many as 900
hours per year or over ten percent of the time.
The Lighthouse Board report for 1899 appealed for a formal lighthouse
at the end of the breakwater, citing the number of steamships that
used the harbor and the "dense fogs in summer and the blinding
snowstorms in winter" that obscured the man-made hazard. Congress
approved $30,000, and in June 1901 the beacon was moved to the extreme
tip of the breakwater to make way for the lighthouse.
After a couple of weather-induced starts and stops, the W.H. Glover
Company of Rockland completed the lighthouse on September 19, 1902.
Just over a month later, on the night before Halloween, a revolving
fourth-order Fresnel commenced sending out a white flash every five
seconds at a focal plane of thirty-nine feet. The station was also
originally equipped with a first-class Daboll trumpet fog signal,
though a fog bell was later added as backup.
When built, Rockland Breakwater Light Station consisted of a red-brick
fog signal building at the outer end of the breakwater with a square,
twenty-five-foot-tall light tower rising from one side of its pitched
roof. Connected to the lighthouse and fog signal building, were a
one-and-a-half-story, gambrel-roofed, wood-frame keeper's house and a
boathouse. All the structures were built atop a stone pier, and the
interior of the light tower and fog signal building was lined with
ceramic-faced brick. The dwelling's cellar contained two 1,500-gallon
cisterns for collecting rainwater for the use of the keepers. Similar
cisterns were also located beneath the fog signal building to provide
water to cool the fog trumpet engine. To increase visibility of the
fog house and tower, the red brick was painted white in 1906, and
remained white until 1991, when the original red brick color was
restored.
Howard P. Robbins was appointed keeper of Rockland Breakwater
Lighthouse in June of 1902, and just a few months later his annual
salary was raised from $500 to $540, and his son Clifford was made his
assistant. Father and son jointly resigned in 1909 after a series of
harsh winters at the station surrounded by heavy ice. "Three or four
winters like that in a row," Clifford said, "and I got fed up with
lighthouse keeping!" The next keeper, Charles W. Thurston, lasted only
six months before passing away on Christmas Eve 1909 following
surgery. Assistant keeper Leroy S. Elwell was promoted to principal
keeper on Thurston's death.
As Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse was so near town, it was designated
a "stag station," where keepers lived without their families. Perhaps
the keepers tired of this or their wives did, as in August 1915, the
men received permission for their wives to join them. In a case of "be
careful what you wish for," almost immediately Elwell dispatched a
letter to the district inspector begging the permission be revoked: "I
now think it the best for the authority granted to be discontinued as
it is not agreeable for two separate families to live in the same
quarters, so I respectfully ask of you that the authority granted be
discontinued at once."
One of the assistant keepers, Albert Tribou, had a near brush with
death in October 1916. As his wife watched in horror from a window in
their Rockport apartment, Albert's small sailboat overturned in a
sudden squall as he was returning to the station. His wife ran from
the apartment, grabbed a cab to the harbor, and breathlessly exhorted
some men with a boat to rescue her husband. The men found Tribou near
death, clutching the boat. He was rushed to a hospital, where the
staff barely managed to restore him to health. In 1922, Tribou was
both commended for helping the owner of a cruiser that had run aground
and dismissed for unnoted reasons.
After serving at Two Bush and Indian Island, Leroy Elwell returned to
Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse as principal keeper in 1925. The
following year, he received a complaint that during a heavy fog the
fog signal had not sounded. Elwell explained to his superiors that he
had found his assistant, who was supposed to be tending the signal at
that time, asleep on a coat on the floor. Although the horn was not
sounding, the engine was running, and its air tank would have likely
exploded if Elwell hadn't found it when he did. Elwell was ordered to
"keep a close watch" on the man.
George E. Woodward, the last civilian keeper at the breakwater light,
arrived in 1934 as assistant keeper and was promoted to principal
keeper a short time later. When the Coast Guard took over in 1939,
Woodward enrolled as a chief petty officer. During World War II,
additional Coast Guard personnel were stationed at the light to watch
for enemy vessels using a lookout tower that was placed atop the
northern end of the dwelling's roof and accessed through a ceiling
hatch. By the end of 1944, the surplus staff was transferred
elsewhere, and Woodward soon moved to Owls Head Light Station.
The installation of a pair of powerful diaphragm air horns in the late
1940s was met with hostility from sleepless locals and vacationing
guests at the nearby Samoset Hotel. Numerous complaints led Maine's
Senator Margaret Chase Smith to contact Coast Guard Admiral Joseph F.
Farley, who explained the difficult balancing act of finding a signal
that could ably warn mariners and not disturb civilians. Nonetheless,
the volume of the fog signal was decreased, and peaceful nights were
restored.
Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse was automated in 1965, and the keepers
reassigned. The fourth-order Fresnel lens was later removed from the
tower, but when the Coast Guard announced plans to remove the
lighthouse itself, the City of Rockland objected, and the Samoset
Resort offered to assume care of the building, which it undertook
until 1989. Under the Maine Lights Program, the lighthouse was
transferred to the City of Rockland in 1998, and in 2001, the city
leased the lighthouse to Friends of Rockland Harbor Lights, a chapter
of the American Lighthouse Foundation.
During the Friends' first five years of renovations at the lighthouse,
hazardous materials were removed, hardwood shutters were installed
along with a security system, a new historically accurate railing was
put in place around the top of the tower, benches were mounted on the
veranda over the boathouse, a floating dock and ramp were acquired,
windows were replaced, the structures were painted and rewired for
electricity, and the premises were opened for tours. Not bad for a
group of volunteers funded by grants, contributions, and sales at its
on-line gift shop. In its second five-year effort, the Friends
completed a full restoration of the station, opened an on-site gift
shop, and established an endowment program to ensure that the
lighthouse will be cared for in perpetuity.
Dot Black served as the first chair of Friends of the Rockland
Breakwater Lighthouse and helped get the restoration well underway.
Dot and her husband Ken are well-known in the lighthouse community.
Ken Black served in the Coast Guard, ending up as Commanding Officer
of the Rockland, Maine, Coast Guard Station. Realizing that many
priceless lighthouse artifacts were in danger of being lost, Ken
started a collection of lenses and other lighthouse artifacts that now
forms the core of the exhibits at the Maine Lighthouse Museum in
Rockland. The Blacks, fondly known as Mr. and Mrs. Lighthouse, have
helped made Rockland an exceptional lighthouse destination.
References
Ferry and Travel Information
Ferries: "Captain Charles Philbrook" and "Captain E. Frank Thompson"
Destinations: Crossing between the City of Rockland and Vinalhaven
Crossing Distance: 15 miles
Crossing time: 1 hour 15 minutes
This is a printer icon Print out this page
Schedules
Winter Schedule 2013
Monday thru Saturday January 1 thru March 30
Departs
Sundays January 6 thru March 31
Departs
Vinalhaven
7:00 a.m.*
8:45 a.m.*
10:30 a.m.
1:00 p.m.
2:45 p.m.*
4:30 p.m.*
Rockland
7:00 a.m.*
8:45 a.m.
10:30 a.m.*
1:00 p.m.*,**
2:45 p.m.*
4:30 p.m.*
Vinalhaven
7:00 a.m.
8:45 a.m.
1:30 p.m.
3:15 p.m.
Rockland
7:00 a.m.
8:45 a.m.
1:30 p.m.
3:15 p.m.
Please Note: There is no service on News Year's Day
*Ferry does not operate on Thanksgiving day
**Ferry departs Rockland at 1:30 p.m. (summer & winter schedule) on
Tuesdays due to fueling
Summer Schedule 2013
Daily April 1 thru December 31
Departs
Vinalhaven
7:00 a.m.
8:45 a.m.
10:30 a.m.*
1:00 p.m.*
2:45 p.m.*
4:30 p.m.*
Rockland
7:00 a.m.
8:45 a.m.
10:30 a.m.*
1:00 p.m.*,**
2:45 p.m.*
4:30 p.m.*
* Does Not operate on Thanksgiving Day
**Ferry departs Rockland at 1:30 p.m. (summer & winter schedule) on
Tuesdays due to fueling
General Information about the Vinalhaven Ferry
No service on Christmas day
All non-reserved vehicles and trucks leaving Vinalhaven are required
to have a LINE NUMBER. Please contact the Vinalhaven Terminal for
further information.
Contact Information
Rockland Office
Maine State Ferry Service
P.O. Box 645
517A Main Street
Rockland, ME 04841-0645
Tel. (207) 596-5400
Vinalhaven Island
Maine State Ferry Service
P.O. Box 191
Vinalhaven, ME 04863-0191
Tel. (207) 596-5450
This page last updated on 1/3/13
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